Last spring I described the home made pipe organ I had made.  I took
it on the road a couple of times, to rave reviews, of course, but was
never happy that there was no control of the pressure and the resulting
tuning problems.

I took it all apart this winter and added an octave of bass pipes and
cleaned it up a bit.  In the process, I fixed some leaks and added a
pressure regulator.  I experimented with a lot of things, but what works
for me is the bellows out of a "First Discovery" kid's toy accordion
from Toys-R-Us, about $30.  I think what I've made is a winker.

In the movie at the link below, there are two regulators: one
controlling the wooden pipes and the other the flutes.  Air comes
from the Ametek blower on the right, not shown, through a pipe through
the air box to the regulator on the right and 8 inch air goes back
into the box and on to the wooden pipes.  The regulator on the left
takes air pressure from the blower down to 3 inches w.g. or so and
goes out to the left to the pipes.  There could probably be more
experimenting on the sizes of the valves.

One of the big obstacles was the regulator hunting or going into a
vibration as it was starting to work good.  The easy solution, once
it was done, was a damper on each made from a plastic slide whistle.
After a little more work, it will all go back in the cabinet and I
might take it out again next summer.  (This is an addictive hobby!)
Comments and criticism welcome.  Enjoy the Merry Polka.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_vx_bnl9JI
 

Bill Clark